We don't usually enjoy reading genealogies where someone begets someone who begets someone and on and on. But in the Bible we find that genealogy is especially important. There are many ways that we can describe the main theme of the Bible. One of those ways is to say that it tells of the family of Jesus, beginning all the way back to the first man. And it is interesting that the Bible is the only book that gives the complete history of man, starting with the creation and the first people.
As we look at the Old Testament we see that it begins with Adam and Eve. They had sons Cain and Abel, but Cain killed Abel so the Bible has a bloody beginning. The third son was Seth; and Seth is important because he is in the lineage of Jesus. If we follow the lineage of the family of Jesus through the OT, we see that it goes from Adam to Seth to Seth's son, and his son, and his son....right on down to Jesus. Along the way we read of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, later David the king and on down to Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus.
The importance of genealogy is emphasized when the New Testament begins with the genealogy of Jesus. The very first chapter of Matthew gives a complete summary of the family of Jesus. The first verse says, "The book of genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham." We know that Jesus is not directly the son of these two men; the Bible uses this language to mean that He is a descendant of these. And the fact that these two men are referenced in this way is a credit to each. Abraham was a great man of faith, the father of the Jews and the one who received the promise from God that is first given in Genesis 12. David was the greatest king of the OT and one described as "a man after God's own heart."
And so, while we don't usually like to read long lists of names, we can see that this is quite critical to understanding the Bible and how it all ties together.
Thanks for reading again. I hope you have a great week.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Easter
Most of the Christian world is celebrating the holiday of Easter today. And it is a beautiful and powerful story; a story of sacrifice by a perfect man in order to bring salvation to His people. A story of not just death in a cruel way, but of triumph over death, of being raised from the dead. This raising showed that Jesus is God, a part of God, the child of God. But it also showed that Jesus cannot be held by death, cannot be stopped by death. And it showed that just as He cannot be held by death, neither can we. We, as Christians, as followers of Him, will not die, but live on with Him forever, just as He promised. He promised that He would be raised....and He promised that we would be raised if only we follow Him and His teachings.
Where I worship, in the church, we basically observe Easter every week. We don't call it Easter, nor does the Bible. We observe it every week because that is what we see early Christians doing as recorded in the New Testament. Just before His death, Jesus took the Jewish Passover with His apostles. While He did so, He taught them to take the bread and fruit of the vine in the future as a remembrance: "Do this in remembrance of Me." This is taught in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and 1 Corinthians 11.
We see an account of Paul and His companions taking the Lord's Supper to remember His sacrifice in Acts 20:7. "On the first day of the week, we came together to break bread." The early Christians worshiped on Sunday, the first day of the week, and made a point of remembering the death and resurrection of the Lord each week.
Praise be to God and to our Lord Jesus Christ who gave His life for us, suffering and dying, but then conquering death. "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." John 15
Thanks for reading. Feel the love.
Where I worship, in the church, we basically observe Easter every week. We don't call it Easter, nor does the Bible. We observe it every week because that is what we see early Christians doing as recorded in the New Testament. Just before His death, Jesus took the Jewish Passover with His apostles. While He did so, He taught them to take the bread and fruit of the vine in the future as a remembrance: "Do this in remembrance of Me." This is taught in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and 1 Corinthians 11.
We see an account of Paul and His companions taking the Lord's Supper to remember His sacrifice in Acts 20:7. "On the first day of the week, we came together to break bread." The early Christians worshiped on Sunday, the first day of the week, and made a point of remembering the death and resurrection of the Lord each week.
Praise be to God and to our Lord Jesus Christ who gave His life for us, suffering and dying, but then conquering death. "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." John 15
Thanks for reading. Feel the love.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
The Legacy of Abraham
One of the most significant, if not the most significant, figures of the Old Testament is Abraham. He is described in Hebrews chapter 11, the chapter of faith in the New Testament. A number of different people of faith are named in this summary chapter, but the most acclaim is given to Abraham. The two main reasons cited for Abraham's noteworthiness are: 1) Abraham was willing to follow the instruction of God to leave his country and go to a new land, all at the direction of God. "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tents...." This took great faith. And 2) At the instruction of God, he was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. God stopped him before he took the life of Isaac but not before God could be sure of the faith of Abraham.
It is interesting that Abraham is considered the founder of three religions. He was the founding father of the Jewish race and religion. As such, he was in the lineage of Christ, Christ being a Jew and a direct descendant of Abraham. But the Muslim religion looks to Abraham as its founder as well in that Abraham had another son, Ishmael, who went on to be the beginnings of the Arab nation from whence came the Muslim religion. So we see that Abraham was a key figure in Christianity, Judaism, and the Muslims.
It might should be noted that Ishmael is described in the Bible as a "wild donkey of a man," and it says that there will always be a problem between his people and the Jewish people. We, of course, see that this is still true today. There has always been friction between the Arab nations, often called Palestinians, and the Jewish nation, Israel. While peace talks are a noble gesture, there will never be a lasting peace there....and the Bible says so.
Abraham was a great man of faith and likely the most important of all men in the Old Testament. There are others of great significance such as Adam, the first man, and king David, perhaps Moses or the prophets. But there was none like Abraham. We can follow his example of faith, dedication to God.
Thanks for reading. Have a great week!
It is interesting that Abraham is considered the founder of three religions. He was the founding father of the Jewish race and religion. As such, he was in the lineage of Christ, Christ being a Jew and a direct descendant of Abraham. But the Muslim religion looks to Abraham as its founder as well in that Abraham had another son, Ishmael, who went on to be the beginnings of the Arab nation from whence came the Muslim religion. So we see that Abraham was a key figure in Christianity, Judaism, and the Muslims.
It might should be noted that Ishmael is described in the Bible as a "wild donkey of a man," and it says that there will always be a problem between his people and the Jewish people. We, of course, see that this is still true today. There has always been friction between the Arab nations, often called Palestinians, and the Jewish nation, Israel. While peace talks are a noble gesture, there will never be a lasting peace there....and the Bible says so.
Abraham was a great man of faith and likely the most important of all men in the Old Testament. There are others of great significance such as Adam, the first man, and king David, perhaps Moses or the prophets. But there was none like Abraham. We can follow his example of faith, dedication to God.
Thanks for reading. Have a great week!
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Carrying the Cross
We all know the story of the day that Jesus was made to carry His own cross, headed toward His crucifixion. And we know about the man who was made to carry the cross of Jesus when Jesus could go no further with it. But in this lesson we will examine this latter man a little closer and the circumstances of his involvement.
The accounts of this event are found in the first 3 gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke and can be found one chapter back from the end of each book; thus, Matthew 27, Mark 15, and Luke 23. Note Mark 15:21, "A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country; and they forced him to carry the cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha....." One can see that not a great deal is said about him in the New Testament.
So the man's name was Simon the Cyrene. Cyrene is a city in Libya, in northern Africa, so this man was a long way from home. We see that he just happened up on this scene and suddenly found himself carrying a heavy load. He was "forced" to do this by the Roman soldiers. They were in power at the time and had the right to grab a citizen and force him to do a job.
It might be significant that it says that he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. The implication is that the writer mentioned these names because the reader might already be aware of these guys. There is a good likelihood that these men were Christians, making the reference to the father of them meaningful to those who read the account, particularly at that time when these men were still alive.
Imagine what it must have been like to be forced into carrying a heavy load like this, leading a man to His death. Then imagine what feelings he must have had later when he realized what a significant event this was.
And we can extend this story to ourselves. The Bible teaches that we must carry our own crosses. And if we sacrifice, if the load is heavy, we can remember the love of Jesus and the reward that awaits us.
Again, thanks for reading and have a great week!
The accounts of this event are found in the first 3 gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke and can be found one chapter back from the end of each book; thus, Matthew 27, Mark 15, and Luke 23. Note Mark 15:21, "A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country; and they forced him to carry the cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha....." One can see that not a great deal is said about him in the New Testament.
So the man's name was Simon the Cyrene. Cyrene is a city in Libya, in northern Africa, so this man was a long way from home. We see that he just happened up on this scene and suddenly found himself carrying a heavy load. He was "forced" to do this by the Roman soldiers. They were in power at the time and had the right to grab a citizen and force him to do a job.
It might be significant that it says that he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. The implication is that the writer mentioned these names because the reader might already be aware of these guys. There is a good likelihood that these men were Christians, making the reference to the father of them meaningful to those who read the account, particularly at that time when these men were still alive.
Imagine what it must have been like to be forced into carrying a heavy load like this, leading a man to His death. Then imagine what feelings he must have had later when he realized what a significant event this was.
And we can extend this story to ourselves. The Bible teaches that we must carry our own crosses. And if we sacrifice, if the load is heavy, we can remember the love of Jesus and the reward that awaits us.
Again, thanks for reading and have a great week!
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